FACT, FICTION AND GATEWAY TO THE TOTENUNIVERSE

The Witches Are Coming

Isn’t it typical? You think you’ve come up with a good idea and then someone beats you to it and gets all the kudos. For several months now I’ve been writing the second Toten Herzen novel and thought I had found an opportunity for a spin off series and then I read this article in the Guardian.

In short, Sally Green has written a novel about witchcraft called Half Bad. It’s her first novel and that is great news for her. I’m not going to dismiss her achievement. But what it means now is that when I eventually get round to writing my novel based on witchcraft the bandwagon will no doubt be packed, standing room only. The television channels will be stuffed with witchcraft series, each one hoovering up every conceivable storyline and plot twist.

So, the purpose of this short post is to plant a flag here and now to say my idea was swirling around between July and November 2013 and is not in any way influenced by the new fad for witchcraft novels.

If I had to summarise the Malandanti Conspiracies I would say it’s Dennis Wheatley meets the Wire. Witchcraft for grown ups. I solemly swear there will be absolutely no swooning teenagers, no halfwitted youths, no tall dark handsome strangers casting spells over bored housewives. The Malandanti Conspiracies will be amoral, uncompromising and very much rooted in a real world influenced by people who cannot be easily categorised as good or bad.

The Malandanti receive an early run out in the second Toten Herzen novel, The Lost Valley. There is a descendant of victims of the Bamberg witch trials, an individual who, at the time of Toten Herzen’s first incarnation in the seventies, may or may not have been running around with the Red Army Faction. Those days are gone, but the desire to undermine western authority still exists. I felt the story of the Malandanti was too complex to be contained by a single Toten Herzen novel, hence the idea for a spin off series in which I could really flesh it out. But in The Lost Valley there will be glimpses of their ruthlessness, drive, methodology and let’s say ‘charisma!’

Remember, you read it here, 23rd November 2013. The Malandanti Conspiracies. A by-product of Toten Herzen and not whatever publishing trend might be swirling around by the time you get to read it.